Saul Zaentz, producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, dies

Saul Zaentz, who won Oscars as producer of films One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest, Amadeus and The English Patient, dies aged 92

Film producer Saul Zaentz, who won best picture Oscars for One Flew Film producer Saul Zaentz, who won best picture Oscars for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus and The English Patient, died on 3 January aged 92Photo: AP/Getty Images

By Telegraph Reporters

4:23PM GMT 06 Jan 2014

Saul Zaentz, the film producer who won best picture Oscars for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus and The English Patient, has died aged 92.

Zaentz died on Friday at his San Francisco area home from complications related to Alzheimer's disease, his nephew Paul Zaentz said.

Zaentz also received the Irving G Thalberg Award in 1997 from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his “consistently high quality of motion picture production.”

He was also honoured with BAFTA's Academy Fellowship in 2003 for his career achievements.

His triumph was his first film, when he paired up with fledgling producer Michael Douglas on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The film starred Jack Nicholson and was based on Ken Kesey’s novel. It won the top five Oscars in 1975.

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Zaentz had started in the music business, working with jazz impresario Norman Granz and managing the tour of such jazz greats as Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck.

In 1967, he bought a record label called Fantasy Records and signed rock group Credence Clearwater Revival, who went on to make the label millions.

He later fell out with Credence Clearwater Revival's frontman John Fogerty, with the pair trading insults and legal cases. Fogerty's songs Mr Greed and Zanz Kant Danz ("but he'll steal your money") and are thinly-veiled attacks on his former boss, and Zaentz sued over the lyrics to the latter.